Medical devices, in particular medical devices which are patient monitoring and/or treatment devices, include or operate with cables, hoses, tubes, etc. which are connected between the medical device and the patient. These must be long enough to reach from the medical device to the appropriate locations on the patient. However, if they are too long, they are obtrusive and hazardous because they may kink, tangle, become entwined with the patient, interfere with the healthcare worker, become snagged on that worker's clothes, and during patient transport, may become snagged or tangled with external obstructions. On the other hand, if they are too short, they require that the medical device be placed at a particular location and in a particular orientation with respect to the patient. This location and orientation, however, may interfere with access by healthcare workers to the patient. In short, device location and orientation is often constrained by the attached cables, hoses, tubes, etc.
In an effort to minimize these effects, the medical device may be physically rotated to permit the cables to run in a more optimal manner. Physically smaller medical devices may be easily rotated, but are usually more constrained in their use. That is, smaller medical devices generally perform fewer and/or more limited functions. Physically larger medical devices may perform a relatively wider range of functions, but are harder to rotate. Further, rotating the medical device causes the image displayed on the display device to also be rotated. This makes the image harder to read and any graphical image (e.g. EKG, respiration or similar waveforms) harder to evaluate by healthcare workers.
Some medical devices further include buttons which a user may press to invoke a desired function. Some such medical devices locate the buttons near the edge of the display screen. The display screen displays respective labels near the buttons to inform the user what function is associated with the respective buttons. This allows the buttons to be dynamically reassigned to different functions by changing the image displayed on the display screen. As described above, however, if a medical device is rotated, the labels related to the buttons may become hard to read. In addition, the location of the buttons activated to perform frequently performed functions is changed. That is, a button on the upper left corner of the medical device when the medical device is oriented in a normal manner becomes the button on the lower right corner of the medical device if the medical device is inverted. This means that a healthcare worker used to pressing the upper left button to perform a frequently desired function may, when the medical device is inverted, accidentally press the upper left button which, as described above, is associated with a different function than that desired.
Display systems which operate in different orientations have been developed. Such systems permit the display system to be used in several orientations. For example, the display system may be either mounted under a cupboard with the display screen rotated downward for use in, for example, a kitchen; or to be placed atop a counter with the display screen rotated upward for use on, for example, a desktop; or to be placed partially opened on its side. An orientation switch, which may be an automatic orientation switch, in such a system conditions the electronics driving the display screen to display the image in the proper orientation in any of the positions.